Best Song of 2001: Heat #7

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

So close! But Wyclef beat Andrew WK by one vote (not mine!). However even if pop-metal is not represented in the finals it is clearly made an impact on all your hearts etc.

Back to the heats now, and this penultimate bunch of 2001 features up-and-coming young guns Janet Jackson, Snoop Dogg and the Manic Street Preachers. It's heat #7!

• You get a maximum of TEN TICKS over the three bits of the poll. The top five will go through to the next stage.



• If you want to change your vote (or tick too many by mistake), you can edit your votes by clicking on 'Poll #12345' then 'Fill Out Poll'.



• UK chart placings given in brackets.



• You have until Friday lunchtime to vote.



• Rep for your favourites in the comments! Youtube embeds very welcome.

[Poll #1448661]


Cheeky edit: this is probably a good juncture to point out that it is POPTIMISM on Friday! Details here.

Comments

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

quick! close the poll now! and my five choices can go through :)

although i've only done five tickies, i think they might all be in my top ten of the year...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Ticked exactly 10 on the first run through, but three of those were just 'fine' rather than 'awesome' and there are at least 5 that I can't remember & need to relisten to.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

8 on first run, but will happily untick Avalanches. Need to check out Joe, Chante M and Adam F I think.

ticking me off, t-t-ticking me off

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

STOP TICKING THE STROKES

and tick this instead!

Re: ticking me off, t-t-ticking me off

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Woops, missed this one on the first pass. Sorry Aaron, this is how JOE BEAT YOU.

i aint thinkin bout them other chicks, they aint even comin close to this

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

sweet, bubbly, summery if any of you fvckers who ticked Play don't tick this I will throw a strop

here's the number to my cell, hit me on the hip (!!??!)

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

what i like about 'straight up' is that she's saying that she's no bvllsh1t and isn't going to play the dude around etc but it sounds almost smothering; 'here's the number to the crib where i really live' is fine but then there's 'here's the number to my job, call me in the week' sounds like a step too far and 'told me you're spoken for but i don't see a ring on your finger boy' suddenly makes her sound marginally threatening. but in a cute summery way so it's all ok!

SMASH SUMTHIN

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

hahahahahaha, i have never seen the vid before, excellent.

anyway, this is proper ridic maximalist 'ip-'op that makes me sing REDMAN in a stupid high pitched voice whenever i hear that bit of carmina burana it samples...

Re: SMASH SUMTHIN

[infov0re.livejournal.com]

Yes. I had not seen the video either, but this was an easy, easy tick, and the video makes me want to tick it again.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Not actually heard it but if "Stock Exchange" by Miss Kittin is half as good as a track called "Stock Exchange" by Miss Kittin ought to be, it can have a tick off me.

I can smell their expensive after-shave / When they touch my bum in the lift of the Empire State

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

It's a classic!

[credoimprobus]

Not just this heat, but this entire YEAR is all about this one for me:



Let me reiterate that:



This is ONE OF THE MOST PERFECT PIECES OF MUSIC EVER MADE. I suck at writing coherently about music I love, though, so I will leave it to someone more accomplished to explain the why, how & etc. :D

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Agreed! Thx for finding the right version (I am too lazy)!

My two favourites in this heat

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

SOUND OF THE GROOVE ARMADA WE SUPER STYLE-IN (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufzqypO2k_A) (no embedding, boo)

Whenever I think 'Kompakt', I think of 'So Weit Wie Noch Nie'. Except NOT THIS VERSION waaaah the vocals are all wrong:



A much better rendition of SWWNN can be achieved using these little guys (http://bordel.yomgaille.com/kittens/)

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

SWWNN is k-boring. The remix included on the recent Michael Mayer mix "Kompakt - The Early Years" is a bit better.

Destiny's WHY-ld

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I never really liked Survivor that much - the vocal line is like a relentless bludgeoning round the head but not in a good way (unlike say 'Lose My Breath' which at least does what it says on the tin)

Re: Destiny's WHY-ld

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

Because of the flipping amazing bridge:

I'm wishing you the best
Pray that you are blessed
Much success, no stress, and lots of happiness
I'M BETTER THAN THAT!
I'm not gonna blast you on the radio
I'M BETTER THAN THAT!
I'm not gonna lie on you or your family yo
I'M BETTER THAN THAT!
I'm not gonna hate you in the magazine
I'M BETTER THAN THAT!
I'm not gonna compromise my Christianity (that is the funniest bit)
I'M BETTER THAN THAT!
You know I'm not gonna diss you on the Internet
Cause my momma told me better than that!

Kinobe

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I bluddy loved this at the time, cocktail lounge music or no - but surely there is something better I can tick. AHHHH YES how about some banging Detroit (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAVBizDjNIw).

Re: Kinobe

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

does your werk db say which ENGLEBERT HUMPERDINCK song the Kinobe track is based on? i can't remember

Suggestion Diabolique

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Probably their best track this decade: awash with ideas (too many, you could argue, for one 8-minute track), by turns spacey then rhythmic, it's an almost 'best of Stereolab' consigned to one track, like your life flashing before you. The climax always gives me a rush.

Needless to say, not on YouTube :(

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

hardest round yet in terms of painful unticks - poor Dave Clarke

A lovely lovely song

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

Re: A lovely lovely song

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

comrade abandonment themes seemed to be very common in 2001

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Really awful heat. Go on, own up, who has been voting for the c0cking Manics again?

'Survivor' is possibly my favourite DC song, and Grandaddy make an appearance (VOTE GRANDADDY!!) but those two are the only redeeming features.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Looking intriguingly tight at the top there - so far Frank's fears that "The Takeover" might not get through are unfounded, but it's very close between 6 or 7.

mo punch than a bowl o' juice

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Odd heat. Few MASSIVE OBVIOUS classics but many many cases of "oh...I remember that...that was pretty great, wasn't it!" Probably more rewarding because of this! Currently revisiting a bunch of tracks I haven't thought about in YEARS to narrow it down, and enjoying this v much. Several artists who never made great albums, or so I assume, perhaps wrongly - but no one ever talks about Joe or Chanté Moore albums even though both these singles are classics. The lost single from the lost Sugababes album. RIP Lisa Lopes.

This is one MASSIVE OBVIOUS classic which, I am guessing - I haven't seen the ticks yet, but poptimists never fail to disappoint - will need more love. Golden age of Slip'n'Slide! Trina and Trick Daddy were such a formidable pairing. Love the way this is called "Take It To Da House" and it actually TAKES IT TO A HOUSE BEAT. Kind of the looser, sunnier, beach party cousin of "Big Pimpin"; I have had SO MUCH FUN at hip-hop dance class to this. Embedding disabled but love the basketball-themed video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPwICxjNvY4) loads.

Re: mo punch than a bowl o' juice

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Wheatus, Pulp, Avalanches and a mash-up way ahead of Janet, Trick Daddy, Backstreet Boys, Joe. Right. *clicks off poptimists*

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I appreciate Tom's observation that "Stroke of Genie-us" prefigures post-Avril (and at least, more directly, post-Clarkson) teenpop, but other than that the mash-up really leaves me cold...they didn't figure out what to do with the chorus! The guitar chords don't match "there's a price to pay"/"I can make your wish come true" and overall it's one of the less elegant mash-ups that I've heard that's fairly popular. But the idea itself only seems interesting in hindsight anyway, and I'm guessing the connection is more of a coincidence than anything else.

[martinv.livejournal.com]

Why is that mashup doing so well? We all fell for them at the time to a degree, but this is really one of the absolute worst offenders. Rubbish.

Also, I thought that Lisa Lopes single would be doing way better round these parts.

Pulp wuh?

[meserach.livejournal.com]

What's the deal with the Pulp track? Is that two tracks listed as one tick (and if so lolwut), or is it some kind of mashup thing?

Re: Pulp wuh?

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

It is what was known to the ancients as a 'Double A-side'. The meaning of these words are lost to us now, but we suspect it has something to do with Star Wars fighters.

S-to-the-P-to-the-O-T-IFFY

[meserach.livejournal.com]

http://open.spotify.com/user/meserach/playlist/4iMk4SgHuf3rthfj0ionm3

Can't believe this is languishing on 3 ticks

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

fules, this is the best Sugababes song!! ("About You Now" possibly excepted)

Re: Can't believe this is languishing on 3 ticks

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It really is very good. Even with Sugababes being a ::canon:: pop group, One Touch is a really underappreciated album: often weirdly idiosyncratic and unfathomable, always insouciant, quintessentially teenage. Love the 2-step beats throughout too. "Soul Sound" is excellent but I'd rate "Lush Life", "Just Let It Go", "One Foot In", "Same Old Story" and "Look At Me" over it.

Sugababes albums:

One Touch > Three > Taller In More Ways > Angels With Dirty Faces > Change > Catfights & Spotlights.

But their highlights are sprinkled really evenly over the first four, plus "About You Now".

It's weird that as bad as they've become, their new material doesn't "infect" their old material, as Girls Aloud's has done.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

NO, WAIT, HANG ON. There are 11 ticks for the stupid trees and none of you motherfvckers can be arsed to tick Stutter ot Son Of A Gun (which is amazing) or Straight Up?!

Or fucking SMASH SUMTHIN?! No that is it. I am joining the Lex, you are ALL INDIE. And I like fucking Kasabian!

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Sigh, I've unticked Pulp. Y'know for a relatively weak heat, this one has been brutal. I don't think I couldn't live without ANY of these songs. That "So Fresh So Clean" is my #1 pick is not a ringing endorsement of the stuff underneath it. Though I do really like that Jurgen Paape song.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

It really sucks that "The Call" is stuck on so few votes, considering that it's possibly my favorite BSB single. In case anybody forgot:

My BATT-ER-Y is LOW

[meserach.livejournal.com]

This is aces. So much being sadly overlooked in this heat.

So Fresh So Clean

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

This came out when I was still super-excited by Outkast, and I really wanted to like it. Unfortunately, it just reminds too much of Frank Bloody Zappa… but that's probably just me.

Re: So Fresh So Clean

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes, it really quite annoys me too. Not as much as "Roses", as we'll no doubt get to.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

After listening to several more songs after the intitial nine I ticked (and un-ticking one or two of those), I couldn't get my list lower than 11. So I decided to skip Destiny's Child, who don't need my vote (and whose dominance of these polls is getting really really tedious, no matter how good they were.)